


Cabin

by Blizzardshock



Series: Survive the Siege [2]
Category: Creepypasta - Fandom
Genre: Cheap Horror, Graphic Description of Corpses, Graphic Description of Injury, Mind Control, Poor Life Choices, Psychological Horror, cabin in the woods
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-25
Updated: 2020-11-02
Packaged: 2021-03-09 02:26:58
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 9,807
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27196462
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blizzardshock/pseuds/Blizzardshock
Summary: It was supposed to be a quick trip to the cabin to grab the things Slender Man's untimely arrival in the forest had forced them to abandon.  At least he didn't stick around long, giving them the chance to go back and grab their stuff.(Same world as Sewers.)
Series: Survive the Siege [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1971436
Kudos: 5





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> ... I'm supposed to be finishing a presentation.
> 
> Anyway, more cheap horror because the world (I) deserves (want) more of it!
> 
> Details on how, exactly, Slender Man's memetic effects work in the end notes.

“Are you sure we should be doing this?” Analese asked, worrying her nails with her teeth, “I mean, the thing JUST disappeared. Maybe we should wait a week.”

Hailey sighed and kept her eyes on the road.

“If we wait a week, all our clothes will be rotten and who knows what will happen to our electronics,” she explained in a tired voice. “Right now, the warning’s gone down. That forest is empty, and who knows how long it will stay empty. If we want our stuff, we need to go get it now.”

“Yeah, besides, there’s five of us!” Len piped up from the backseat, “Ol’ Slendy doesn’t attack big groups if he can avoid it!”

“He’s an infohazard. Stop using his name.”

Several sets of eyes flicked to John, who didn’t look up from his book. After a moment, everyone looked away again, most turning to stare out their respective windows.

“So, purely out of curiosity, not doubting you or your word, Hailey, why did we all have to bring backpacks full of food and water?” Alex asked, breaking the silence.

Hailey shrugged but didn’t look back at him, saying, “Better have it and not need it than need it and not have it.”

Alex nodded and looked back out of his window with a sigh.

The drive was a stressful one, and the week before hadn’t been much better. Slenderman had appeared in the forest their cabin was located in at the worst possible time, leaving Hailey and all her friends with no choice but to drop everything and leave. Being stuck without their computers, a good portion of their clothes, and most of their toiletries had made for a miserable time for all of them.

Thankfully, the faceless creature hadn’t stuck around for very long, which was, admittedly, odd behavior. Hailey didn’t care too much, though. All they needed was one day to grab all their stuff and leave again. Quick, easy, and it wasn’t like they were going to go looking for trouble. Even if something did go wrong, they had supplies. They were going to be just fine.

“How much longer?” Alex groaned.

Hailey sighed again, and saw Analese roll her eyes. They would be just fine as long as they didn’t murder each other on the way, at least.

“I have another book if you’re really that bored,” John said.

Alex shuddered and told him, “Normal humans can’t read in the car and feel fine, John.”

John shrugged and continued reading. Alex huffed and let his head hit his window with a thump.

“I’m always down for a thumb war,” Len offered.

Hailey tuned the group out. They had reached the trees, finally, and she knew pretty soon that the road would turn from rough asphalt to even rougher dirt. She couldn’t quite keep herself from suspiciously scanning the trees around her, looking for any sign of anything out of place, but there was nothing to see. Nothing but trees.

Of course there was nothing but trees. The Slenderman had left a full day ago for some forest in Germany. There was nothing in this forest but Hailey and her friends. And even they wouldn’t be in here for long. Just long enough to grab their stuff.

“You see anything?” Analese asked softly.

Hailey shook her head and muttered, “Nothing but normal trees.”

“It’s okay to be cautious, you know,” Analese murmured.

Hailey glanced at her friend. Analese was staring blankly out the window, rubbing her fingers together slowly. She seemed to be a thousand miles away. Hailey wanted to say something to reassure her, but what could she say? It wasn’t like lying and saying there was absolutely no chance of anything going wrong would help.

“Hey, what’re you girls talking about up there?!” Len yelled playfully.

Analese twisted to look back at him, that blankness Hailey had seen vanishing as Analese said, “The best way to murder a guy in the forest and make it look like Slenderman did it.”

“Get some stilts,” Alex suggested, deadpan.

Laughter broke out, and Hailey felt some of the tension that had been building in her shoulders release. They weren’t even going to be in the forest for more than two hours at their absolute longest.   
They would be fine.


	2. Chapter 2

Hailey glared down at her suitcase. Her favorite shirt was gone. Again. She remembered distinctly placing it on top of all her other clothes. Three times, as a matter of fact. Someone was moving her shirt around.

“Okay guys, very funny,” she yelled, “but if I catch you with my shirt you’re all dead!”

“Wasn’t me!” four voices simultaneously cried.

“Exactly why you’re all gonna suffer,” she answered, then began scouring her room for the shirt again.

How had they even managed to move it so quickly? She had only turned her back for 30 seconds at most to grab a sock! She grumbled under her breath as she checked under the bed, then in the closet. Nothing. Where the hell did it go?

“So my left shoe has disappeared? And I know I had it a few minutes ago? And whoever has it better give it back?” Len shouted from his room.

Alex joined in with, “Yeah, I’m missing my favorite shirt too! Who’s stealing clothes?”

“It’s not just clothes,” John called, although to Hailey his voice was much more muffled than the others, “I’m missing the Kindle I brought here.”

“That old thing was on the verge of breaking anyway, and you’ve got a better one at home,” Analese told him, “but I’m missing my best bra and whoever I find it with is going to pay for it with their skin, understood?”

Hailey joined in the denials this time. She hadn’t left her room since they arrived, and wouldn’t be touching anyone’s stuff anyway. She wanted to be in and out as fast as possible, just in case Slenderman wasn’t as gone as they all thought.

Her shirt wasn’t in her room. How had they gotten into her room and left with it without her seeing them?! This was infuriating!

Hailey shot a glare at her suitcase, then stopped dead. There, on top of her clothes, was Analese’s bra. How…?! Whatever. Whatever! Hailey snatched the offending undergarment and stalked over to Analese’s room, finding the girl staring out the window.

“Found your bra,” Hailey announced.

Analese jumped, then looked at Hailey with wide eyes.

“You… wait, you found it?! Where?!” Analese exclaimed, grabbing her bra and throwing it into her suitcase before zipping it shut.

“In my suitcase. You must’ve left it in my room when we left.”

Analese frowned at Hailey, and slowly said, “I never left any of my clothes in your room…”

Hailey shrugged and walked back to her room. Now if only her shirt could reappear so conveniently…

It hadn’t. Her suitcase was just as she left it. Hailey ran a hand through her hair and ransacked her room, throwing open all the drawers and moving everything that wasn’t nailed down. Nothing. Someone had taken her shirt from her room. And this was a five-person cabin.

She checked her phone and sighed. She’d just have to leave it. They had been here longer than she would’ve liked, and she could always get a new shirt. Probably. Definitely. The shirt wasn’t worth the extended risk.

“Guys, pack it up!” Hailey called, “We ought to get out of here soon.”

“NOT UNTIL I FIND MY SHOE!” Len yelled in response.

Hailey rolled her eyes and zipped up her suitcase. Len had more shoes than he knew what to do with. Missing one wasn’t going to kill him.

“FORGET YOUR DAMN SHOE, YOU CAN FIND IT LATER!” Alex yelled.

Hailey dragged her suitcase out into the living room. John was in the kitchen nearby, tossing food into a garbage bag. At her look, he shrugged.

“Most of this is rotting now. We don’t want it stinking up the cabin,” he explained.

Hailey nodded and sat down on the couch. She could wait a few minutes for the other guys to finish up.

“Did you find your Kindle?” she asked John.

John shook his head, frowning.

“No, but Analese was right, I do have a better one at home. I used the one that went missing for travel for this exact reason. Still, I would’ve liked to keep it.”

Hailey nodded, then looked at their suitcases. It would be better to get those out to the car now, save some time. She grabbed her and John’s bags and walked outside, heading for the car. The forest was… quiet. Eerily quiet.

Hailey picked up her pace and shoved the bags into the back. It wasn’t the nicest job, but the hairs on the back of her neck were telling her that something was very very wrong, and she didn’t want to stay outside alone any longer than she absolutely had to.

Hailey turned away from the car and froze. One tree, one tree off in the distance, was moving. It was just swaying, back and forth, but it was the only thing moving. Hailey’s throat closed up in fear. No. It couldn’t be. It couldn’t be.

She broke her stare at the tree to sprint inside, heart hammering in her chest. Hailey slammed the door behind her, and pressed her spine against it, shaking. Slenderman wasn’t in these woods. He wasn’t. He had left them for a forest in Germany, she saw the reports!

It had to be her paranoia. It had to be. They were fine. They would be fine. They just had to pack up their stuff and leave, which they would do.

John was walking up to her, concern spread over his face. Hailey looked at him, wide-eyed, and tried to think of something to say that wouldn’t induce panic. She had just freaked herself out over a tree.

There was nothing in the woods but them. They were fine. They were safe. They could leave.

“Hailey? Hailey, look at me, what’s wrong?”

Hailey shook her head, mostly trying to buy herself time.

“It- I- it’s- I thought I saw something-” she began, stumbling over her words. Why wasn’t she calming down? They weren’t in danger. She had been seeing things because she was scared.

“Saw something? What do you mean, saw something?” John interrupted, fear growing on his face as he jumped to the same conclusion she had.

“I- it’s probably nothing, I was really worried about this trip, but I’m sure everything’s fine, we should just grab our stuff and leave now, though, just in case-” Hailey explained frantically, waving her hands a bit as she tried to sound somewhat cohesive.

John turned away, maybe to call the others, maybe to gather his own thoughts. Whichever he was doing, he didn’t get the chance to reveal it. A scream rang out through the cabin.

“Analese?! ANALESE?!” Multiple voices called for the screamer as the rest of the group ran for her room.

Analese was pressed against the wall opposite to her window, sobbing and shaking.

“Analese what happened?!” Hailey asked.

Analese said nothing, but pointed at her window. Hailey turned to look, and froze up again. There, hanging outside the window like some kind of malicious dreamcatcher, was John’s Kindle. Carved into its screen was a circle with an X through it.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's snowed in?
> 
> Anyway, it's time for arguments.

No one said anything. They had all gathered in the living room, piling their supply backpacks in the center of the room. Hailey was incredibly glad Alex had insisted they all take them inside when they first arrived.

“If this is a joke, speak up now,” John said softly.

Looks were exchanged, but still, no one said anything. Analese was still shaking, but she had stopped crying once Len had piled three blankets over her shoulders.

“Should we try to leave?” Len asked, “I mean, no one’s seen him, and Hailey got her and John’s bags out to the car. Should we just grab our stuff and go?”

John shook his head and answered, “We were given the Symbol. We’re marked.”

Ice settled in Hailey’s stomach. She curled in a bit tighter on herself, trying not to start crying.

“Okay, so what? If Sl- that thing could get into the house it would’ve already done it and chased us out. We all know it prefers to stalk its victims to exhaustion in the trees,” Alex argued, “but so far the Symbol and a few articles of our clothing going missing are the only signs that something’s wrong. I say we wait it out. We have enough food and water in our bags alone to last us two weeks if we’re careful, and with the canned goods and water left in here from our first trip, we can go even longer.”

“Did you seriously just suggest we try and out-wait him? There are reports of that thing stalking people for years, Alex, a few weeks isn’t going to deter him,” John snapped.

“So we run back home and get tossed right back out here again because no one wants that thing walking around town, taking interest in their kids while it’s looking for us!” Alex yelled back angrily.

“Stop,” Analese whispered, but only Hailey heard her.

Alex and John both got to their feet, fists clenched.

“What, do you want us to just feed ourselves to it, is that it?” Alex snarled.

“Stop,” Analese repeated, her hands sliding up to cover her ears.

“No, I’m just pointing out the obvious flaws in your plans! I’d rather not be killed by the thing outside but I’m going to be realistic about it!” John retorted, taking an aggressive step toward Alex.

“Stop,” Analese begged. Hailey scooted closer to her, and wrapped her arms around Analese.

“You guys,” Hailey started, but was cut off.

“Or maybe you want us to get caught! Proxies get points for that, right?!”

“STOP!!!!” Analese screamed.

No one moved. John looked like he wanted to punch Alex, and Alex looked ready to tackle John, but it was obvious fear had infected everyone in the room. Len looked away from the two men at Analese and Hailey, both of whom were shaking, then scowled at Alex and John.

“Both of you need to sit down now,” Len said in a cold, commanding voice, “throwing baseless accusations at each other isn’t going to help anyone. I know you’re scared, we all are, but you don’t get to put all of us in danger because of it.”

At the rare serious tone from Len, both Alex and John sat down, looking away from everyone.

“Now,” Len said, looking back to Hailey and Analese, “what do we want to do?”

Hailey looked at Analese, then shook her head. She didn’t know.

Len nodded and looked back at John and Alex, saying, “I think we should stay here, at least for a little while. None of us are in any state to try and make the drive home. One night, that’s all, and it’ll tell us for sure if it’s actually Slenderman out there, or if it’s just some idiot in the woods trying to fuck with us.”

Hailey nodded. John and Alex did too. Len nodded and grabbed his backpack, pulling it open and retrieving a protein bar.

“We should all sleep in here,” John said suddenly, “Just to keep an eye on each other. We don’t want anyone to vanish during the night.”

“You’re right,” Alex murmured, before he sighed and added, “I didn’t mean what I said. I’m sorry. I was scared, but there was no reason for me to blame you like that.”

“I accept your apology. C’mon, we should drag the rest of the bedding out here. Make sleeping out here at least a little bit nicer,” John said, getting to his feet.

The two vanished into John’s bedroom. Hailey sighed and leaned gently on Analese, feeling her quiver even through the blankets.

“We’re going to be okay,” Hailey whispered, “We’re going to be okay. We’re all going to get some sleep, then we’re going to go right back into town and explain what happened. We’ll be fine. You’ll be fine. We’re all going to be just fine.”

Len looked at her. Hailey met his eyes, then looked down. They all knew the procedure for those being hunted by an infohazard. But it was better than being psychologically and physically tortured. Hailey hugged Analese a little tighter, guilt creeping into her mind.

This was her fault. If they hadn’t come up here, if they hadn’t been so stupid as to think Slenderman would abandon a forest after spending just a week there, they could all be safe at home. Their stuff wasn’t worth their lives. Why had she insisted on bringing them all up here?

“It’s not your fault.”

Hailey looked back at Len. He was smiling, although it looked more like a grimace and held no happiness.

“We didn’t have to agree to come with. We all thought the woods were safe. We… well, we were all kinda stupid for thinking that, I guess.” Len laughed awkwardly and rubbed the back of his neck. “The point is, this isn’t your fault. Everyone’s got equal blame here. We all agreed, and we’re all stuck here because we were dumb. Don’t blame yourself, okay?”

Hailey nodded slowly. He was right, in a way, but the trip had still been her idea. If she hadn’t suggested it, they wouldn’t have agreed. This was her fault.

Analese shifted under her blankets. Hailey released her grip and leaned back, waiting to see if she needed something. Analese slowly worked her arms free of the blankets and pulled them away from her face, shedding all but the first one that had been dropped on her. She sighed and grabbed her backpack, taking out a water bottle and rolling it in her hands.

“I don’t know how the Kindle got out there,” she whispered unsteadily, “I just turned to the window and there it was. Hanging there. I don’t even know what got used to hang it, the lights still work so no wires are missing.”

“Someone could have brought their own wire, and, if it was… you-know-who… I don’t think he’d have any trouble finding or making it. As long as you didn’t see him, you’ll be fine,” Len assured her.

Hailey swallowed. She had seen him. Possibly. It had looked just like a tree, but if it wasn’t… if she had seen Slenderman… She shook her head to clear the thought away. She hadn’t seen anything but a waving tree. At worst, she had seen where Slenderman used to be. She was fine.

Analese looked at her, tilting her head a bit. Hailey forced herself to smile. It was going to be okay. Everything was going to be okay. They would have a restful night then drive out in the morning. They would be fine.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The procedure for infohazards? Death or a memory wipe, of course! No other way to take care of infected memories, unfortunately.


	4. Chapter 4

No one was sleeping. Granted, John was on watch so he wasn’t supposed to be sleeping, but the rest of them were. Hailey could hear that everyone was awake, however. Breathing too quick, shifting in the sleeping bags and pillows, occasionally sighing as they tried to get comfortable. No one was sleeping.

The hours before John had announced lights out had been… odd. Nothing had happened, nothing disappeared, there were no odds sounds or suspicious shadows or figures standing outside the windows or doors, but everyone had been so tense that Hailey had nearly decked Alex when he walked up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention. It was about as far from a relaxing cabin getaway as it could possibly get.

But now, they were all trying to sleep. Tomorrow, they were all going to grab their bags, run for the car, and high-tail it back to civilization. They’d figure out what to do next after they got back home. Hailey wriggled onto her back and closed her eyes.

The doors and windows were all locked, not that it would really help against the Slenderman. Hailey forced all the tension in her body to release. She needed to sleep, as she would most likely be the one driving them home. How was anyone expecting to sleep when there could be an inhuman monster waiting outside for them to fall asleep so it could strike?

That kind of thought wasn’t helping. John was more than capable of pulling an all-nighter, she had seen him do it before, then do it again, then stay up half the following night before exhaustion finally pulled him under. They were safe. Slenderman wouldn’t directly attack if there was a group and he was being watched for.

It might not even be Slenderman. None of them had seen anyone, inhumanly tall and suited or otherwise, outside at all. It might just be a cruel prank. Either way, they had a plan, and they were going to stick with it. They were going to get out of the woods. Literally.

Hailey snuggled deeper into her covers. They were going to be fine. They had plenty of food, so even if for some reason they couldn’t leave tomorrow, they could wait. They would be fine…

Hailey was running. She could barely see the ground in front of her. Branches like claws whipped at her arms, legs, and face. She ran anyway.

It was after her.

She could feel it in the erect hairs on the back of her neck, the dull buzz rasping at the inside of her skull. It was chasing her. It knew these woods so much better than she ever could. It was going to catch her. It was going to kill her.

Hailey kept running. She didn’t want to die. Even if she was only prolonging her life by a few minutes, it didn’t matter. She wasn’t going to just give up. She didn’t want to die.

She ducked under a low-hanging branch. Where was she going? The forest went on for miles and miles and miles. She couldn’t get out before it caught up with her.

It didn’t matter. She wasn’t going to stop. She didn’t want to die.

Hailey swerved around a tree and nearly stumbled to a stop. Ahead of her was… a truck? An old truck that glinted under the sickly moonlight. She already knew it wouldn’t start. She ran past it, heart beating against her collarbone like a drum.

Her pursuer hadn’t been nearly as interested by the abandoned vehicle. It had gotten closer thanks to her hesitation. Hailey didn’t turn to look at it. She panted as she ran faster, barely avoiding the trees looming up in her path. She couldn’t stop. She didn’t want to die.

Pure chance stopped her from running full speed into the fence. Hailey skidded ungracefully to a stop in front of it, looking along the fence in both directions in a panic. Which way? Which way? She felt the buzz in her skull spike, and terror made her start running again.

It was going to catch her.

No, she told herself, it was going to try. She was going to run for the rest of her life if she had to. She didn’t want to die. She had found a fence, which meant there had to be a gate. Follow the fence, find the gate, escape the forest. She could do this. She didn’t want to die.

It was harder than it sounded. The trees along the fence were thicker and darker than the ones deeper inside, making them that much harder to avoid. And IT was catching up to her. Hailey pushed herself to run as fast as she could, ignoring the searing pain in her side and legs. She didn’t want to die.

A particularly hard hit with a branch staggered her. Hailey kept running, one hand clamped over her bleeding eye. Losing an eye wasn’t helping her escape. She could barely see in the first place, and losing her depth perception made weaving around the trees that much harder.

The thing chasing her kept getting closer. She couldn’t hear it, and refused to turn to look at it, but she could feel its static build behind her eyes the closer it got. She wasn’t going to stop. She didn’t want to die.

There was something up ahead. Hailey could feel it. Whatever it was, it wasn’t like the thing chasing her. She might’ve called it friendly, but her view might have been skewed by the overpowering presence of malice burning into her skull from behind. It had to be better than the thing chasing her. It had to be.

Hailey burst past several trees and almost wanted to start weeping in joy. The gate. The gate in the fence. It was just ahead of her, appearing to glow in the middle of the clearing it was in. She found it. She found the way out. She just had to reach it.

Hailey released her injured eye and put her whole body into her sprint. She wasn’t going to die. She was going to make it to the gate, she was going to escape, she wasn’t going to die!  
Something that felt like a branch slammed into her stomach. It had caught up to her.

Hailey screamed and clawed at the ground as she was dragged back by whatever had curled constrictively tight around her midsection. She could barely breathe as it drug her back, back toward the thing that had been hunting her.

She pleaded with every deity she knew of to make the thing let her go, but no one seemed to be listening. She could only watch as her freedom vanished back into the trees. Hailey started crying, then started crying worse as her tears stung the cuts on her eye. She was so close. She didn’t want to die.

The thing around her middle lifted her suddenly, and spun her around so she could face her pursuer. Hailey’s eyes went from the blood red tie neatly tied around the thing’s neck to the smooth, white canvas that made up its face. She sobbed and yanked at the black tendril encircling her stomach like a python, vainly trying to loosen it.

The creature staring her down seemed… amused by her efforts. This was… this was all a game to it. A game where she bet her life she could escape, get away from his territory before he got to her.

And she had just lost.

WAKE UP, it hissed in the static.

Hailey jolted awake. For a wild minute, she was certain she was still outside in the forest, still being held by that creature, before she actually registered her surroundings.

She was inside the cabin. She, Len, John, and Alex were all sitting with maybe three feet of space between each other. Their backpacks were gone. They all had their arms and legs tied together with cords.

Hailey looked around in a panic, and saw Analese sitting across the room from them all, watching them coldly with a survival knife in her hands.


	5. Chapter 5

“Analese?” Hailey asked shakily, the remains of her nightmare mixing with the very real situation she was now in to form a deep-seated terror, “Analese, what’s going on?”

Analese locked eyes with her. Hailey could see fear and determination and sadness and anger… what the hell was going on? One of Alex’s earlier words snaked into her mind. “Proxy”. Hailey felt something in her chest compress like a weight had been dropped on it.

“Analese?” she whispered, feeling tears prick up her eyes.

Analese looked away, discomfort now joining the myriad of emotions on her face. That was a good sign, right? Proxies didn’t show emotion like that, right? Hailey began shaking. Was she just trying to find evidence contrary to what was pretty obviously a fact?

“Whaa… Why am I tied up? Um. Analese, what the fuck?” Len asked, apparently waking up too.

Len looked around the room, before he focused on the knife Analese held tightly in her hands. His eyes widened.

“Analese if this is a prank it’s gone way too far. Untie us,” he said, eyes never leaving her weapon.

“...I can’t…” Analese whispered.

Hailey looked at her, seeing from the corner of her eye that John was awake too, although he seemed to grasp the situation just fine and was sitting in silence.

“Why not?” Len asked a bit wildly.

Right about then, Alex woke up. He jolted upright and gasped, looking around frantically, before something seemed to click and he too turned to Analese. Stark terror covered his expression as he struggled against his bonds.

“Wh-what the fuck?” Alex demanded.

“I didn’t want to tie you up,” Analese said softly, “but I needed to be sure you would listen first.”

“Listen to what?!” he cried.

Len joined in, saying, “Analese, whatever is going on, just untie us and we’ll talk about it!”

“I CAN’T!!!” Analese screamed. Tears began sliding down her cheeks.

“I can’t,” she repeated more calmly, “not until I’m sure. Not until I’m sure.”

Hailey shook her head and asked, “Sure of what?”

Analese stood up and straightened her shoulders.

“Our backpacks are gone,” she said, “and all the food in the cabinets is too. Someone took them. Probably the same person who moved all of our stuff around so we’d take longer to leave. Someone in this room is being controlled.”

The silence that followed was terrible. Hailey could feel her tremors get worse. Their packs were gone. Their packs were gone. But that was fine, wasn’t it? They could just get in the car and leave!

Analese swallowed before she started speaking again.

“We can’t take a proxy home. We’re in enough trouble as it is. I don’t-” she sobbed, then shook her head angrily, “I don’t want to leave any of you behind. But whoever’s been taken over… you’re dead already, aren’t you?”

Hailey looked at John, then Alex, then Len. They all looked as scared as she felt. But Analese was right. They couldn’t bring a proxy home with them. But who…? No one had seen Slenderman. Not a single one of them! Hailey came closest and she had only seen a tree that had been shaken!

Analese walked closer to Len.

“Len. You suggested we stay the night. Were you just trying to give yourself more time to trap us? You told Hailey this wasn’t her fault. It is because it’s yours?”

Len shook his head desperately.

“Analese,” he said, “I’m not the proxy, I haven’t seen Slenderman ever. You have to believe me-!”

Analese moved on to Alex.

“Alex,” she said, “you wanted us to stay here even longer than Len did. You were willing to pick a physical fight when John said no.”

Alex shuddered and stammered, “Yes, I did, but I was just scared, and Slenderman was gone, in a whole other country, in a week before we arrived! Why wouldn’t I think waiting it out would be a good idea?!”

Analese turned to John, bypassing Hailey.

“John. Every plan we suggested, you turned down. Were you trying to wear down our hope, make us think our only option was to run out into the forest? And why didn’t you keep watch like you were supposed to?”

“No, no! I was just trying to keep everyone from running off half-cocked! I never suggested we run off into the forest, that’s suicide! I fell asleep, I’m sorry!” John yelled, eyes wide.

Analese turned to Hailey. Hailey felt her stomach drop.

“Hailey. This whole trip was your idea. This cabin is yours. How do we know you weren’t playing the long game for your master?”

Hailey desperately shook her head. She wasn’t a proxy. She wasn’t!

“I’m not a proxy!” she cried, “I didn’t mean for any of this to happen! I’m sorry, I was stupid, this is all my fault, but I didn’t- I’m not- we’ve been out to the cabin a hundred times together! If I was a proxy, why didn’t I attack you before now?!”

Analese looked down. Hailey could feel her breath stuttering in her chest. It wasn’t her. Hailey knew she wasn’t the proxy. But who…

“Hailey?”

She looked to John, who had an unreadable look on his face.

“What did you see when you put the bags in the car that scared you so badly?” he asked slowly.

Ice crept through Hailey’s veins.

She whispered, “A tree. It was just a tree, a normal tree, that had been shaken by something.”

All eyes were trained on her. Hailey was shaking so badly her teeth began chattering. They didn’t believe her. They didn’t believe her.

“I-I swear, it was a normal tree! Not- not Slenderman! I’m not a proxy! I promise, I didn’t see him! Please!” she shrieked.

“I’m sorry,” Analese whispered, as tears began running down her face, “but I don’t believe you. And I have to keep the others safe.”

Analese cut the other three free, while Hailey screamed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Any ideas on who's actually got static in their brain, if anyone?


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: mentions of gore/torture

“Please don’t do this,” Hailey whimpered.

None of her friends looked at her. Hailey clawed at the floor best she could, but she couldn’t grab anything that would stop her. John and Alex dragged her toward the door, while Analese watched and Len waited to open it. Analese was crying, sobbing as she watched Hailey get dragged away.

“I’m not a proxy. I’m not a proxy. Please don’t do this,” Hailey moaned pathetically.

Len opened the door, watching the tree-line intently. Hailey tried to scream again, but all that came out was a raspy whining noise. They were going to leave her outside. They were going to leave her tied up like a fucking Christmas present for a monster known for brutally dissecting his victims as he ate them alive and left their hollowed-out corpses pinned on trees.

Hailey squirmed and fought, but it did her no good. John and Alex dragged her to the tree line and dropped her, both sprinting back inside the house. She wailed, the sound coming out strangled and weak, and continued writhing against the cords keeping her hands behind her back and her legs from separating.

She had to get out of this. She had to. She would walk back home if she had to, she wasn’t going to die in this forest!

The trees around her were silent. Hailey told herself it was because of her being dragged outside and nothing else. It wasn’t reassuring. She strained as hard as she could, feeling something shift but nothing loosen. She didn’t want to die here.

Hailey managed to wriggle herself to the nearest tree with a reachable branch. She slid the cords around her wrists over it and pushed down with all her strength, then resorted to using her weight. She pushed, and pushed, and finally, finally, felt something give.

Thank god Analese was never a Girl Scout. The knot had slipped. Hailey pulled her hands free and, after shaking them to try and return some feeling to them, started on her legs. The forest around her was silent. That was fine, she was making noise, it didn’t mean anything.

Hailey jumped to her feet, then fell against a tree. Her feet were numbed too. She swore and sat down, desperately rubbing her feet. She couldn’t stay out here. She had to get inside.

Hailey suddenly remembered something and checked her pockets. For convenience, they had all slept in their clothes the night before. She pulled out the car keys with a gasp. She had the keys. She was the only one with the keys.

Hailey looked at the car, then at the keys in her hand, then at the cabin. She could leave. They wouldn’t be able to stop her. They couldn’t go anywhere without her anyway. She could leave. She could leave them for the monster they had thrown her to.

No. She couldn’t do that. They were her friends. She… she couldn’t leave them to Slenderman to pick off, one by one. And they were stuck with the real proxy inside and didn’t even know it. She had to do something.

Hailey walked up to the front door of the cabin and knocked. Nothing. Not even a flicker of movement from the curtains.

“I HAVE THE CAR KEYS!” she yelled. Tried to. It came out cracky and harsh, but she was certain they heard it.

She wasn’t sure how long it took for Analese to poke her head out of the curtains. Hailey showed her the keys, and tried to keep her lips from curling into an angry sneer. Analese paled, then her eyes darted past Hailey and she blanched. Hailey felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise up, and felt the distinct rasp of something against the inside of her skull.

Oh no.

Hailey refused to look. She focused on Analese, whose pupils had almost gotten large enough that they swallowed her iris. That was… that was… shit. At least she now knew who was under mind control, not that it was likely she’d live long enough to tell anyone.

Hailey swallowed dryly when she heard a very deliberate step behind her. She couldn’t look. She hadn’t seen him. If she saw him, there would be no hope for her, which was only a little less hope than she currently had.

The static moved from the back of her skull to the front, pressing against the back of her eyes. She had to run. If she wanted to live, she had to run. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to die. She didn’t want to die. Terror kept her frozen in place. She had to run. She couldn’t. She had to.

Something cold and slimy slid up the back of her neck. Hailey screamed louder than she ever had, voice breaking in the middle. The sensation kickstarted her legs, and she started running. Her feet had pins and needles in them, but it didn’t matter. She had to run. She didn’t want to die.

Hailey ran as hard as she could. She quickly decided that following the road wouldn’t help, and made for the forest, dodging and weaving around the trees. It was following her. She could sense it, just like in her dream. The static in her mind had moved back into her skull again. That meant she was getting further away, right?

She kept a running mantra of don’t look playing in time with her feet. Hailey flew through the forest, clenching the car keys in her hand so tightly her fists began dripping blood. It didn’t matter. Slenderman knew where she was. Leaving a trail wasn’t going to kill her. She just had to get to the gate.

What gate?

Hailey’s mind screeched to a stop, although thankfully her legs didn’t follow suit. There was no gate. There was no fence. Not in this forest. Slenderman’s territory extended to the edge of the trees, which was miles and miles away. She would never reach it before he caught up with her! This wasn’t a dream where there was an easy solution!

Hailey almost wanted to start crying again, but her wild sprint kept her from doing anything other than sucking in large, desperate breaths to power her. She was dead. And she had run away from the only place of safety she knew of. She was dead. She was just prolonging the inevitable.

So what? She didn’t want to die. She wasn’t just going to give up. She didn’t want to die. Hailey kept running, feeling the static encourage her flight. The forest here was much sparser than the one in her dream. She had scratches up her arms, but her legs were protected by her jeans and she managed to protect her face fairly well.

The static suddenly vanished. Hailey slowed down, then stopped, panting heavily. What? Why had he stopped? What could possibly-

The sting from her hand made Hailey look down. She had the car keys still. She had the only way to access the only feasible way out of the woods. And she had just run who knew how far from her vehicle. And her friends, who were inside believing they were safe while a proxy waited for its next orders.

They had been played like marionettes. And Hailey only saw it now that it was too late.


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: mental manipulation, thoughts of allowing one's self to die, exposure to low temperatures

Everything hurt. Hailey kept walking anyway. Now that she wasn’t being chased, her adrenaline had worn off, and all the inconsequential scratches on her arms and face demanded she recognise them for the damage they were. Her legs ached from her frenzied sprint through the woods. Her head throbbed, although the lack of static was a blessing.

How far had she gone? Surely she hadn’t managed to get this far into the forest? She knew where the cabin was, more or less, and she had run in a straight line, but she felt certain she hadn’t managed to run that far off.

She kept walking. The trees around her were quiet, but not silent. She could hear birdsong and insect droning. Slenderman wasn’t nearby. Hopefully. The forest had been silent around him.

Her legs shook as she walked. She really wasn’t made for this. Hailey ignored her legs in favor of keeping an eye on her surroundings. The static was more likely to warn her first, but she wanted to keep an eye out, just in case.

Of course, that was assuming seeing the Slenderman would mean she would be able to run from him. She had managed it once, but who knew how lucky she would be if she caught his attention a second time?

Hailey swiped irritably at the back of her neck, hand coming away smeared with dark slime. She stopped briefly to stare at it, shuddered, and hurriedly wiped it off on her pants. That was disgusting. And disturbing. And she could still feel it clinging to her skin and the tips of her hair (it was probably saliva. Slenderman had licked her.) and at this point Hailey almost wished the thing had just killed her.

No, that thought was over dramatic and pointless. Hailey tried to remind herself that she was in a hurry, but she had been walking for… who knew how long and she was getting nowhere. The repetition of the scenery made it very hard to feel urgent.

Repetition…

Hailey frowned and pulled her car keys out again, using them to gouge a mark into the bark of a particularly thick tree to her left. Maybe she was being paranoid. Hopefully she was being paranoid. She had to be being paranoid!

She continued walking, watching the trees on her left suspiciously. She was being ridiculous. There was no way, no way that she was going in circles. Right? It was a widely accepted fact that no one knew the full extent of Slenderman’s powers, but forcing her to repeat an endless loop in the woods was stupid.

Hailey saw the mark she had made in the tree up ahead and stopped walking. She was in a loop. She had been trapped in a loop. Which probably meant Slenderman was going after her friends first, trapped in the cabin with no way to leave, and was leaving her in the forest for dessert.

She slowly walked over to the tree she had marked and sat down against it. A shiver wracked her body, and she suddenly realised just how cold she was. Running had been keeping her warm, but now that she wasn’t moving, the chill in the air was steadily working its way to her bones.

At least she couldn’t feel the cuts on her arms anymore.

That… wasn’t a good thing. Hailey curled in on herself. She was trapped, and at this rate she was going to freeze to death before Slenderman returned for her. She didn’t want to die, but it looked like she didn’t have any choice now. If the cold didn’t get her, Slenderman would. At least freezing to death would be relatively peaceful. She would just fall asleep and not wake up.

Hot tears began sliding down her cheeks, showcasing just how cold her face really was. Hailey didn’t want to die. She wanted to go home, to see her friends again, she wanted to wake up from this like it was all some awful nightmare. She began rocking back and forth.

She hadn’t called her family. She hadn’t said anything before she left. Why would she? They had only meant to grab their stuff from the cabin and head home. Nothing was supposed to happen. Now neither Hailey nor her friends were ever going to see their loved ones ever again. This was all her fault.

Another harsh shiver. Hailey gulped past the lump in her throat and tried to focus on her fondest memories of her friends and family. If she had to die, she wanted to die happy.

High School graduation night. None of them really wanted to go to a party, so they’d all loaded into Alex’s beat-up old lemon and drove to literally every single place they could think of, restaurants, museums, zoos, movie theaters, all on the money Analese’s parents had given her, probably hoping their daughter might actually go out and be a normal kid for once. By the time they got home, they were all either punch-drunk on sleep deprivation, or tipsy from actual alcohol. They almost regretted the trip the following morning. Almost.

Getting Pillow, Hailey’s dog. The little white golden retriever puppy had run into the house and no matter who they asked, no one knew where the little thing had come from. There weren’t any nearby no-kill shelters, and eventually Pillow had simply become part of the family. When it was made official, Hailey’s parents had been beaming, and just as happy as Hailey had been.

John’s 19th birthday party. Everyone had shown up in-costume, only to discover John had given them all different themes. The picture of an 80s Rocker Chick, Cookie Monster, a werewolf, Eren Jaeger, and Harry Potter, inside a food court all posing around a birthday cake, had been printed out, framed, and hung like a treasured painting in John’s living room.

Hailey smiled, although she was still crying. She wanted to go home. She wanted to see her friends again. She curled up even tighter, clutching her knees to her chest, as she felt another uncontrollable shiver run through her.

The sound of someone running made her jump to her feet, then flinch against the rush of cool air. Was someone else in here? Who? How? Slenderman was silent, and she didn’t feel any static anyway. Had someone escaped the cabin and run her direction? Would they even be able to reach her?

She began to run toward the sound, looking around wildly for any sign that her friends had gotten out of the cabin. She was catching up with the runner, she was sure, so where-?

Someone slammed into Hailey from behind, sending them both to the ground in a pile of tangled limbs. Hailey screeched and shoved the person off of her, feeling warm liquid smear against her hands as she did. She scrambled to her feet and saw who she had collided with.

John was getting to his feet too. He had a large cut across his chest and a bruise on his cheek. They stared at each other for an instant before John spun in a circle, freezing suddenly and stiffening up. Hailey turned to look where he was staring on instinct.

There, against the trees, was Slenderman. He wasn’t moving, he was just standing there, watching them. Toying with them.

John slowly moved close enough to Hailey that he could grab a hold of her wrist, breathing shallow and fast.

“Run,” he whispered, “run and do not look back.”

Hailey swallowed hard and nodded, sliding her wrist out of his grasp to lock hands with him. She sucked in a deep, shaky breath, and together, they spun around and started running.


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings: graphic descriptions of gore, violence, and a shift to narrator unreliability

The moment they turned around, Hailey felt the static return to her skull. She let out a soft whine but ran anyway, getting pulled along by John and his longer legs. How he was still running so fast when a good portion of his shirt was dyed red with his own blood was beyond her at the moment. She could think later. Right now they had to run.

Hailey made sure to watch for the notched tree she had made. She couldn’t help but feel more and more relieved the longer they ran without seeing it. The loop had broken. She guessed it wasn’t any fun chasing someone in an endless circle.

“Others?” she panted, not really expecting a response but hoping that John might just have been unluckily singled out by the predator behind them.

John didn’t look at her. He shook his head.

If it hadn’t been beating like a jackhammer, Hailey would’ve sworn her heart had stopped. What did that mean? Had they all… had the others all been…?

John yanked hard on her arm when her steps flagged from shock. Hailey shook her head, aggravating the static, and forced herself to keep moving. John was still alive. She wasn’t going to make him watch another friend die.

Together, dropping hands to better aid their flight, they sprinted through the trees. Hailey was fairly certain the only plan John had was “don’t get caught”; it was the only one she had too, but that was fine. It was workable. They could figure something else out along the way. She didn’t want to die. It was odd to feel that again, considering how she had accepted her fate against the tree not even two minutes ago.

“RIGHT!” John screamed at her.

Hailey glanced to the right, saw nothing standing in her way, and turned. John kept up with her, occasionally pulling ahead before he would notice her struggling to keep up and falling back just enough to stay close to her. Did he actually have a plan? Or had Slenderman been coming at them from the left? Did it matter? The stitch clawing into her side said nothing mattered besides taking a break from all the running, but she was in no position to listen to that right now. She would just have to follow John, wherever he was taking her.

John managed to snatch her arm again and pulled her faster. Hailey’s breath sobbed, from strain and shock, but she kept herself on her feet. John was definitely leading them somewhere. The static in her mind pulsed, and Hailey swore it almost felt… amused. That probably wasn’t a good sign. But it wasn’t like she had any other ideas besides “run like hell”, so John’s plan, whatever it was, would just have to do.

Wait. She knew that tree. It wasn’t the one she gouged a mark into, but one she had placed in her mind like a landmark because of its bizarre upward twisting branches. They were heading back to the cabin. Hailey still had her keys in her hand, the teeth sliding in the cuts they had made earlier. If they could reach the car- if they could reach the car-!

She could see the clearing ahead of them. Hailey felt something like hope burst into her chest, encouraging her to just that little bit faster. They could make it. They would make it! The static suddenly screamed, sending both Hailey and John stumbling past the trees and into the clearing. Hailey was crying again, trying to remain on her feet, and John wasn’t any better, releasing her arm to grab the sides of his head.

She looked up at the cabin and stopped dead, hearing the static scream again. No, wait, that was her making that noise, wasn’t it? The torn-open remains of Len were sitting inside the open door of the cabin. Alex was on the roof, a stake Hailey was certain hadn’t been there when they arrived pierced through his chest. His legs were gone.

John may have been trying to say something, but all Hailey heard was white noise, even blocking out the static that had been following them. Movement to her left caught her eyes. She looked just in time to see Slenderman standing maybe ten feet away, before what felt like a log slammed into her side and sent her flying.

Hailey hit a nearby tree with a crunch. She screamed, her voice breaking as her vision went white with agony. She hit the ground and twitched, unable to cry because every sobbing breath she took felt like a white-hot poker in the chest. Her ribs. Had he broken her ribs?

John appeared in her field of vision. Hailey whimpered at him as he forced his arms under her and lifted. The pain of it blinded Hailey, and she would have told John to just leave her if she had been able to get any parts of her body to obey her. The keys were taken from her hand and she was unceremoniously shoved into the car.

Hailey could see Slenderman in the rearview mirror. He had Analese, her face as empty as his even as he lifted her up to his head and bared her vulnerable stomach to him. Hailey watched as the smooth white face ripped open, revealing row after row of shark-like teeth, before he bit into Analese, who twitched but didn’t react otherwise.

Slenderman pulled back, intestines dangling from his bloodied mouth, and Hailey swore he was smirking at her. Mocking her. He was eating one of her best friends in front of her and she couldn’t do anything about it.

The rumble of the car starting sent shockwaves of pain through Hailey’s chest. She tore her eyes away from the mirror to look at John, who was so pale he looked ready to faint. He didn’t look at her. Hailey looked back at the rearview mirror.

He was gone. Hailey frowned, then coughed, then whimpered as the pain almost made her fall unconscious. Definitely broken ribs. Maybe broken organs. What did she know? Why was the car so hot all of the sudden?

Hailey looked forward, biting down on more cries as the car started moving. They were getting out. They were getting out. They had lost Len and Alex and Analese, but they were escaping. Something wriggled in the back of her mind, something important that she knew she was supposed to keep in mind, but it quickly disappeared after a bump jostled her ribs again and sent her further into what felt like a hot flash.

“J-John?” she rasped, feeling drool slide from the side of her mouth.

John glanced at her worriedly, then looked forward again and shrieked, throwing the wheel to the side. Hailey saw it too. Slenderman had appeared in the road before them, mouth open and tentacles flailing. The car wouldn’t survive a head-on collision. Slenderman was practically invulnerable to most blunt force even if it did make actual contact.

Hailey had enough time to draw in a single, agonized breath before the car plowed through the underbrush and into a particularly massive tree that stopped it dead, sending her flying into the dashboard and windshield and completely knocking her out.


	9. Chapter 9

Hailey woke up feeling like she was about to die. Her heart was pounding, her skin sticky with sweat, and every muscle in her body felt tensed to the point of snapping. She jolted upright and whipped her head around wildly, trying to see… she didn’t know.

All she saw was her room, dark but warm. Hailey glanced at her alarm clock, which informed her that it had become September 7th almost exactly 20 minutes ago. She sighed and flopped back onto her bed. He wasn’t there.

Who wasn’t there?

Hailey opened her eyes in confusion. Had she been expecting someone to be in her room? Had she had a nightmare about that, or something? Hailey sat up again and examined her room more closely. The only thing out of place was her suitcase, on the floor and half-packed.

Weird, she didn’t remember packing for anything. She examined the clothes and devices mixed in with them and shrugged. If she had been planning something, she’d get a notification in the morning reminding her. It couldn’t have been that important if she had forgotten about it. Of course, it was past midnight. She was happy she could remember her own name.

Hailey climbed back into her bed and frowned. She felt like she was forgetting something. Something important. What could she have possibly forgotten? Maybe Analese-

A bolt of pain shot through her head. Hailey winced and rubbed her temples. That was… odd. A random, accompanying pain in her ribs made her hiss. She pulled off her nightshirt and glared at her abdomen.

A collection of thick, angry scars coated her stomach and chest. Those were from… from… another bolt of pain in her head made her stop thinking about it. Why was she even awake? It was way past her bedtime, and if she was going to be in for work looking reasonably groomed, she needed to get back to sleep.

Hailey laid back down on her side, only to shoot up again when she noticed something in her window. Something was moving outside her curtains. She quickly pulled her shirt back on and climbed out of bed again, then deftly pulled the window covers open.

It was her favorite shirt, tucked neatly into the sill so it would stay put.

Hailey scoffed and opened her window, pulling the thing inside. What on earth was it doing outside her window anyway? What, had she set it out there to dry or something? Hailey snapped the shirt, looking over it critically. Dirty, but not stained. Good.

Something dropped from inside the shirt. Hailey stared at it. It was a piece of paper, crumpled and dirty. She carefully set her shirt on her bed and closed the window, locking it and closing the curtains.  
The paper was blank except for two words, written in a jagged, childish font: ALWAYS WATCHES.

Hailey frowned, then crumpled the paper up again and tossed it under her bed. John was probably playing a trick on her. She ignored her unease in favor of crawling back into bed. If John wanted a reaction, he’d have to wait for morning.

Hailey fell into an uneasy sleep, the feeling that there was something important, something dangerous, that she was forgetting sitting unhappily in the back of her mind. Her dreams were full of dark forests and the feeling of being watched.

She didn’t remember them when she woke up.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sure, she's alive. But only because Slender Man's decided on a long game. I... plan on writing a continuation where Hailey meets (and runs from) some other famous faces from Slender Man mythos.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed!

**Author's Note:**

> SO! Slender Man is, as mentioned, an infohazard. Before the knowledge of the Creepypasta monsters were common, knowing about Slender Man essentially made you into a beacon for him to track down at his leisure. Well, now everyone's a beacon so essentially, no one is. Those who see/find his symbol are the new beacons, and unlike before are all but guaranteed to be hunted down. The severe downside to everyone being passively exposed to Slender Man is that simply seeing him means he's free to reach into their minds and play around. It's much easier to mind control them, and making proxies of varying levels is much easier too.
> 
> Now, Slender Man's a little easier to keep track of than other creatures simply because his presence causes other supernatural things to react as well. It's hardly an exact science, though, and like any system, loopholes exist and are exploited.


End file.
